Dr. Pop's research interests cover several areas of bioinformatics, primarily related to the development of computational algorithms for analyzing biological data generated through high-throughput experimental techniques, such as sequencing technologies. His research is driven by the belief that there is a strong connection between computational and biological research, computation being not just a simple tool in the hands of biologists, but an integral component of current biological research. Pop fosters active collaborations with biologists to ensure the research performed in his lab has an immediate practical application.

Part of his research has focused on the computational analysis of the microbial communities inhabiting our world and our bodies—a scientific field called metagenomics. Pop is an active member of the Human Microbiome Project, which is aimed at surveying the complex microbial communities inhabiting the human body, where he led the efforts to assemble the data generated.

He has co-authored more than 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences and has led the development of several open source software packages, most notably the genome assembly toolkit AMOS (amos.sf.net).

Pop has served on the program committees of many of the major conferences in the field and is currently a section editor at the journal BMC Bioinformatics.

He received his doctorate in computer science from Johns Hopkins University in 2000 and joined the University of Maryland in 2005.